Black Tide is an American metal band from Miami, Florida. Formed in 2004, the band is currently signed to Interscope Records. The original band comprised Gabriel Garcia (vocals and guitar), Alex Nunez (guitar), Zachary Sandler (bass and vocals), and Raul Garcia (drums), who was later replaced with Steven Spence. Black Tide has toured on Ozzfest, and with Avenged Sevenfold and All That Remains, and most recently with Bullet For My Valentine. They've also toured with the Mayhem Festival alongside bands such as Slipknot, Disturbed, DragonForce and more. They also toured with Mindless Self Indulgence, Bring Me The Horizon, Dir En Grey and In Case of Fire in January/February 2009 for the Kerrang! Tour. Currently they are touring with William Control, Attack Attack, and Burn Halo opening for Escape the Fate on the This War Is Ours Tour. They will be at the 2009 Vans Warped Tour. They also played the Rock on the Range festival in Columbus, Ohio. The band released its debut album, Light From Above, on March 18, 2008.
Black Tide was founded in Miami, Florida in 2004 by guitarist Gabriel Garcia and his older brother Raul Garcia. Raul recruited second guitarist Alex Nuñez. At the time, Gabriel Garcia was 11 years old and Nuñez was just 13 years old. Garcia and Nuñez recruited bassist Zachary Sandler and drummer Steven Spence, after Raul's departure from the group. This completed the band's lineup. Originally known as Radio, the band's name was changed to Black Tide by Interscope records soon after its inception. The band started playing local shows, eventually gaining the attention of record labels due to the members' young age and talent. In 2005, Black Tide signed a demo deal with Atlantic Records as Radio. The deal lasted for only a year, before the band was spotted by a record executive for EMI, who notified Interscope Records of the band. By mid 2007, Black Tide was signed on to Interscope.
Black Tide recorded a single, "Shockwave", which gained rotation on MTV2's Headbangers Ball. The band started touring and gained a position on the second stage of Ozzfest, but were kicked off the tour because the stage was sponsored by Jägermeister and all of the members of Black Tide were under the legal drinking age. Although the band was no longer appearing on the second stage, Black Tide was able to be the opening act on the main stage in some areas, opening for Lordi, Static-X, Lamb of God, and Ozzy Osbourne. After Ozzfest, the band toured with Avenged Sevenfold and All That Remains.They are well known partly due to their age. They are all under the age of 21 and two members are still in High School.
In late 2007, Black Tide entered the studio in Chicago, Illinois with producer Johnny K. The band recorded 12 new tracks which included a cover of Metallica's first written song, "Hit the Lights", which originally appeared on Kill 'Em All. The resulting album, Light From Above, was released on March 18, 2008. The album was critically praised, with Dan Epstein of Revolver Magazine saying "Listening to the debut album from Miami's Black Tide is a little like stumbling across a cool late-80s metal record you'd completely forgotten about. A very promising debut" and Scott Alisoglu of Blabbermouth.net stating the album contains "Big, sometimes pop-based, melodies meets crunchy, guitar-driven metal that falls somewhere between thrash/traditional metal and the dirtier end of '80s glam/hair metal." Light From Above debuted at number 73 on the Billboard 200, with 11,400 copies sold in its first week of sales. Black Tide has also won the Kerrang! Award for Best Newcomer.
On March 27, 2008, the band performed on the late-night show Jimmy Kimmel Live on the ABC television network in the United States and Citytv in Canada. In the summer of 2008, the band toured with the Mayhem Festival, playing all around the U.S. The band will be opening for Bullet For My Valentine on their forthcoming November European tour, alongside Lacuna Coil and Bleeding Through. Black Tide will also support Bullet For My Valentine on their US tour in September.The band is now touring on the Kerrang! Relentless Energy Drink Tour with Mindless Self Indulgence, Dir en grey, Bring Me The Horizon and In Case Of Fire. They have started performing "Prowler," an Iron Maiden cover, on this tour, which was formally recorded for Kerrang! Magazine's Iron Maiden Tribute CD, Maiden Heaven.
As of now, Nuñez is working on songs with his new band, The Panix. Black Tide has announced that "Shout" will be the next video, directed by Jason Bergh and David Katzenberg.
The band debuted on British television on 1/17/09 on the BBC show SOUND. Marcus Shaw, drummer of metal band thunderfall, was in the audiences supposedly a fan.
Black Tide is currently out as direct support for Escape The Fate on their 2009 "This War Is Ours" Tour in February and March. Other supporting acts include Attack Attack, William Control, and Burn Halo.
Black Tide will support Trivium from 5/6/09 to 5/19/09 on the Japanese & Australian segment of "Into the Mouth of Hell We Tour".
Their single "Shockwave" is available as downloadable content in the rhythm-based video game Rock Band, and is also featured on the video game Skate 2 for Xbox 360. "Show Me The Way" was also in MotorStorm: Pacific Rift, an all vehicle racing game for the Playstation 3. Black Tide was voted Best New Talent in Guitar World's 15th annual readers poll for 2009, with 43% of the vote. "Warriors of Time" is featured as the title theme in NHL 09 and is also available as downloadable content for Rock Band. "Show Me the Way" has been confirmed for release for Rock Band with an undetermined release date. Black Tide will be playing on the Warped Tour 2009.
Black Tide - Shout (External Embedding Disabled)
Shout
Show Me the Way
Black Tide - Shockwave censored [Music Video] (External Embedding Disabled)
Shockwave
Hit the Lights
